Thursday, August 4, 2011

GameStop Lists Mega Man Dual Pack

Reader Andrew spotted a curious listing on GameStop.com for a "Mega Man Dual Pack", a Sony PSP SKU due for release on September 5, priced at $14.99. Very little details are available this time, but we can assume product to be a bundling of two PSP Mega Man titles, likely Powered Up and Maverick Hunter X.

I say "likely" because we also can't rule out the possibility Dual Pack consists of the PSP Mega Man Legends ports. These titles never released outside of Japan, but perhaps Capcom saw fit to bring them stateside now to flesh out the PSP's thinning library... maybe. Having not been confirmed by Capcom, however, it's difficult to determine just what's inside Dual Pack.

Hopefully, more details are forthcoming. I'll see if I can weasel out a comment from Capcom. In the meantime, feel free to hop aboard the speculation train!

*please note the image pictured here is not from Dual Pack. It is that of the Value Pack -- a similar package released only in Japan.

If Capcom USA hasn't ported the Legends bundle by now, it's never going to happen. Especially after they canceled Legends 3. Much less port two PSP games they claim didn't sell good either. Capcom has turned from a once top tier company, to a pile of utter shit.

@Allahweh: The copyright issues supposedly lie with the studio they used to record the voiceovers for MML1. I've had others tell me this is not correct since they've since rereleased Resident Evil games from that era that likely had the voiceovers recorded at the same studio. But unfortunately I can't confirm this. It could even have to do with individual voice actors.

The voice acting, however, is the only part that could possibly be of issue. The script has, does, and will belong to Capcom. Program code as well, and there's no in-game advertising or music they would not own, either.

This is further made obvious by the fact that they have been able to port the Japanese versions without issue. The only parts that could prove an issue are the english script or the voice acting. The script isn't it, though, so it must be the voice acting.

you know, it's interesting. capcom releases a fighting game, sees how the players work the characters, then get to work ballancing the characters, but they add more in with them, which haven't had ballance testing, but are added anyway, which will in turn, require another ballancing act, likely including even more characters without ballance testing.

capconspiracy anyone?

seriously, you have to wonder what's up. in a day and age where downloading free updates for games is the norm, you can't honestly believe that capcom is just now getting the idea to make a reballance update and release it free instead of pull a "super" and "AE" version and charge for it.

Thanks for clearing that up. That actually makes total sense to me and that seems the most likely culprit.

It's sad though. While a re-release of the Legends games like that would indeed be nice, at this point I almost consider it a slap in the face. I'd much rather have had them work on Legends 3, or even something like X9 one day, not just keep re-issuing older titles in the hopes of assuaging the fans. :(

it's sad. capcom isn't even bothering to "super" this one. can you get any lazier than a repackaged two pack? i mean, half of it is on PSN already! it'd be cheaper to just put the other half on PSN and make it a bundle there. that way, more people have access too it, including people who own the PSP go. considering that this method will include manufacturing costs, it's actualy kind of a dumb move on crapcom's part. it costs them AND the players more. they made some bad desisions with inafune in there, yes, but since he's left, it seems like no bad idea get's thrown away... just good ones.

I'd rather have PS3 Legends and Maverick Hunter X and Mega Man: Powered Up. Missed opportunity to make a shitload of money Capcom... Truly one of the most bone-headed moves in gaming history (of course, this doesn't compare to the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3...)

The problem with doing that, is the game actually has several points where there are no subtitles used, and the instructions are given only by voice. Mostly for story events. Obviously they could add in subtitles, but the fact is, all of the modifications would go beyond the efforts they'd be willing to take for a PSN release, and as others have mentioned, SCEA has this thing about straight ports.

In terms of DASH, if the VA IPs are the issue, then we'd just have to make a new vocal track right?

If there were so many people who wanted to contribute to the devroom, but couldn't because of artistic ability, why not give the people with vocal ability a shot? If they're not willing to hire a bunch of new faces, I doubt it'd be too difficult to contract at least some of the english talent they've been using as of late. (The cast from X8, and the localized PSP games comes to mind. Tron's new lady too.)

It may interfere with the nostalgia, but with the way Capcom tends to handle voiceovers when it comes to MegaMan, some people are quite used to their "musical voice casting". I mean, they already did it when localizing Legends 2 the first time...